“I don’t know the rules,” Shea said.
There was a look between the players.
“That’s okay; we’ll teach you.” This was saidby a man not much older than Clark.
Clark coughed into his hand. Shea’s eyesnarrowed on him. That cough had sounded very like a laugh.
“I think I’ll just watch,” she said.
She didn’t know what they were planning, butshe had no intention of being the gullible newbie.
“It’s impossible to learn Bones and Cards byjust watching,” a deep voice said beside her.
Shea jumped, her heart surging into herthroat at the unexpected words. Fallon watched her quietly beforehis gaze shifted to the players as they sprung to their feet.
“Please. Sit. Continue your game.”
The game slowly resumed as Fallon lingered byShea.
She wondered if it would arouse suspicion ifshe made an excuse and walked away.
“The point of the game is to gather the mostpoints before the deck runs out,” Fallon told her.
Shea’s eyebrows rose slightly at thestatement, and she nodded wordlessly.
What would be a good excuse? It had to beimportant enough to call her from his company but not enough toarouse his interest.
“Points are anything that have a bone onthem. The dice tells you which set of cards hold ascension for eachturn. It’s a game of strategy more than anything.”
“Sounds like it’s based more on luck thananything else,” Shea observed.
She fought against a wince. Why did she haveto engage? What did she care what kind of game it was? She wastrying to find a reason to politely leave.
Fallon chuckled, not offended at herdisagreement. “I can see how it would appear so to an observer. Doyou have another set I can use to show my friend the game?”
The woman with the scar nodded and reachedbehind her into a pack, withdrawing a set of beat up old cards andan equally dinged up set of dice.
“Oh no, that’s not necessary. I’ve never beenvery good at games.”
“Nonsense. It’ll be fun, and if you run withthis group for very long, it’s practically a prerequisite that youlearn if you want to fit in.”
That’s just it. Shea didn’t care if she fitin and didn’t intend to stick around for very long.
“Come.” Fallon found a place for them tocomfortably sit. “Normally, you play this with four people, but itcan be played with just two. There are seven types of cards.Warlord, scout, adviser, soldier, assassin, healer, and bone. Eachtype can do different things. Each role of the dice tells you howstrong an action is for your turn and the possible reward.Traditionally, we used bones for the bet and to keep track ofpoints. Now, they use rocks to represent camp chores.”
The cards blurred in his hands as he began toshuffle. Shea was already confused by the rules. It hadn’t been alie when she said she wasn’t good at games like these.
“We each start with seven cards.” He dealtthe cards to Shea and himself. He also upended a bag of coloredmarbles and parceled out 5 blue ones for each of them, 3 red onesand 2 yellow ones. “We’ll play the first few rounds face up so thatI can explain what each move and card means.”
Shea found herself interested in spite ofherself as he explained what each card meant and how each round wasplayed. He was patient as he reminded her several times that thescout could not also take on the warlord’s role and that the healercould not kill the assassin.
She frowned down at her cards when he rolleda three. The number utterly destroyed her hand. She had severaloptions left but strongly suspected that Fallon held the warlordand adviser, two cards that when paired were some of the strongestin the deck. The three would limit the actions he could take butnot enough. She could pair her healer with her assassin or use thescout to supplement the assassin but the damage done to his cardsmight not be enough.
Hmm.
There might be one way. It was risky thoughand would mean rolling over and letting him win unobstructed untilthe right moment. If she won the game, it would be by the skin ofher teeth and if her gamble failed she’d lose by a landslide.
She’d have to be sneaky to keep him fromsuspecting.
